Oasis
by snugglejong
Summary: A collection of HinaTen one-shots because these gals are gay and in love. Some may be more mature (hence the rating), but most are just cute and sweet. Enjoy!
1. A Special Meeting

Tenten found Hinata nestled into the corner of a brightly-lit restaurant, her pale hands clasped around a steaming cup of tea. Her long, blue-tinted hair fell around her face and pooled on her forearms and the tabletop as she slouched in her seat, not the posture of an heiress. Her eyes were like those of a ghost, the already haunting pearls - usually so beautiful - surrounded in a dark shadow, the bags beneath her eyes puffy and bruised.

Tenten made her way inside, her long brown hair falling limp around her as she hadn't had the energy to put it up in her signature buns, let alone wash it. She met Hinata with a silent, half-hearted wave, slipping into the chair to her left. She stared at her for a long while, watching as she seemed to study her tea, immobile. With a deep sigh, Tenten leaned back in her chair, hailing a nearby waitress.

"Two beers, please," she requested, "and a pitcher as well."

That seemed to break Hinata's near-dissociative state, her tired eyes turning to look up at Tenten, who shrugged and smiled softly.

"You seem like you could use a drink," she said.

"I don't really drink," Hinata replied, noting that Tenten didn't look much better than she did, a darkness having fallen over her usually bright self.

"Yeah, well," Tenten said, shrugging, "I don't like to drink alone."

Hinata nodded, sipping from her tea before realizing that it had grown cold. Pushing it aside, Hinata watched the waitress make her way toward their table, a pitcher and two tall glasses seated atop a serving tray.

"Well," she said, reaching for a glass as soon as the waitress left, "I wouldn't want you to have to drink alone."

They exchanged a small smile, clinking glasses before drinking. Tenten was quick to empty her glass, gulping down the amber liquid while Hinata took a single sip and promptly sputtered.

"Oh," she exclaimed, setting the glass down and making a disgusted face. "That's disgusting!"

Tenten found herself overcome with laughter, a hand falling to her mouth to try and settle herself. Hinata watched her, a gentle laugh slowly replacing the overwhelming embarrassment that she'd felt just a second before.

"You have to gulp it," Tenten advised as her laughter slowed down. "Beer isn't made to taste good."

Hinata laughed again, making her second attempt at the drink and reaching for her cold tea to chase it down. Tenten nodded, giggling at Hinata's perseverance. She found herself watching her again and again, constantly refilling both of their drinks until their waitress set down a third pitcher. She watched as Hinata's cheeks grew pink, listened as her voice grew stronger the more she drank.

"I miss him," she said out of the blue, her fourth beer in hand.

Tenten looked away then, suddenly ashamed. At Neji's funeral she'd seen, through her own tears, the way Hinata and the other Hyuga's mourned. She had stumbled onto Hinata more than once on her way to visit his gravestone, her small body bent in on itself, trying desperately to contain her deep, deep sadness.

It was alienating, really, to see her team and her friends so openly in pain. Personally, Tenten found it easier to bury it deep, allowing herself to cry at the funeral but nowhere else. Instead, she often found herself buried under blankets on her couch or travelling from bar to bar until she was too drunk to find her way home.

Hinata, being the empathetic person that she was, seemed to read all of this on Tenten's face, and slowly, nervously, she reached a hand over to hers. Tenten seemed shocked for a second, her other hand tightening around her half-empty glass. She was unused to the contact, but softened for Hinata, their fingers intertwining.

"I miss him, too," Tenten admitted, her voice cracking slightly.

Hinata rolled her thumb over Tenten's callused hand, and noted with surprise that no tears were springing up, and the warmth she felt in her cheeks didn't seem to come from the alcohol. She looked up at Tenten, and watched as she recollected herself after a moment of grief. Tenten let out a heavy sigh, the drinks in her system making her bold.

Looking up to meet Hinata's gaze, Tenten asked, "Wanna have a sleepover?"

Hinata laughed, slightly confused. "A sleepover? I haven't had a sleepover since I was in the Academy."

"Me neither!" Tenten said. "But it's getting late, and we're both pretty tipsy. I figure the Hyuga Elders may not want their heiress stumbling back home with a blood-alcohol level high enough to kill a horse."

"I'm not that drunk!" Hinata defended, laughing.

"Whatever you say," Tenten chuckled, standing up and pulling out her wallet. Hinata immediately noticed the chill that came over her hand, the warmth of Tenten's hand in her own sorely missed.

Hinata didn't argue over the bill. She walked close to Tenten's slightly taller frame as they made their way to an apartment complex laid out close to the training fields. Tenten guided her down a half-flight of stairs, leading her into her sparsely-furnished basement apartment. Tenten went immediately to the kitchen, opening up her freezer and pulling out a bottle of chilled vodka.

"Weren't you just making fun of my drinking?" Hinata teased, although she was rather excited by the prospect of drinking more, as the walk to the apartment had sobered her up quite a bit.

Tenten laughed, grabbing two shot glasses from one of her cabinets.

"That's fair, I guess," Tenten said, pouring and giving a shot glass to Hinata. Hinata hesitated, staring at the clear liquid. "Don't worry! It's chilled so it basically tastes like water."

Hinata looked at Tenten, trying to gauge whether or not she was trying to trick her and burn her throat. She was right, however, and Hinata was able to down it without her throat feeling burned.

"See?" Tenten grinned, making quick work of her own shot. "Now, I'm thinking I'll make some popcorn, we grab every blanket in my apartment, and we watch some shitty movies?"

Hinata found herself grinning, and noticed once again how the weight on her shoulder seemed so much lighter that night. As she helped carry armfuls of blankets and pillows to the couch, she found herself blushing like a child, realizing just how much Tenten had helped her in the span of a couple hours. Granted, they were both slurring their words and walking with a wobble as they set up a movie in between swigs straight from the vodka bottle. But still, she felt as though she was seeing Tenten for the first time. Hinata was struck with the sudden thought that this feeling she was having for Tenten was maybe the way she'd tried for years to feel for Naruto, and that thought scared her just as much as it excited her.

"You okay, Hinata?" Tenten asked, a massive bowl of popcorn in her hand and the vodka bottle in the other. "You're being really quiet."

"Oh," Hinata started, blushing. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Tenten watched her for a moment, surprised but endlessly happy to see Hinata fold herself up on her couch, a blanket draped over shoulders.

"I'll be fine," she said again, smiling.


	2. Hair

Tenten wasn't used to letting her hair down. Since she was a child at the Academy, she'd always pulled her hair up into two perfectly-crafted buns on either side of her hair. Her collection of bobby pins was nearly as large as her collection of weapons, though she was skilled enough not to need too many on the average day, her hands moving with muscle memory to her scalp each morning.

However, walking to the market in the middle of autumn, Hinata matching her stride beside her, Tenten had felt a strangely pressing desire to have her long chocolate locks down to dance in the wind just as Hinata's did. Hinata's hair, of course, was always free to twist and turn as it wished, bouncing along past her shoulders in loose curls. Tenten often caught herself staring at Hinata as they ate lunch or trained together, feeling a burning need to run her fingers through her hair, just like the deep ocean waters it was colored after.

She didn't, of course, but damn it if she didn't want to.

Instead she watched Hinata's hair dancing in front of them, the cold, dry wind pulling each piece so that it seemed to lead them to the market. She felt the metal of each individual pin against her scalp, irritating her in a way they never had before.

"I'd like to get some vegetables, maybe some squash, carrots, and celery," Hinata said, and Tenten was suddenly confused, ripped from her own imagination.

"Huh?" she supplied.

"Vegetables," Hinata said again, turning her head to meet eyes with Tenten, "for the stew?"

"Oh, yeah!" Tenten stumbled on her words, trying not to seem as peculiar as she felt.

Hinata watched her for a second more, her lips - usually a light, inviting pink, but currently pale and glazed in a thick layer of chapstick to stave off the dry winds - curling up into a smile as she laughed. Tenten couldn't help but blush, burying her face in the folds of her jacket.

"Sorry," Tenten said, feeling more embarrassed than she was accustomed to. Usually, she felt so confident, and couldn't place how or why being around Hinata made her feel like the floor was constantly falling out from under her.

"Don't be," Hinata told her, smiling at her gently, the sounds of the market growing steadily louder in front of them. "You're the getting the beef, right?"

Tenten nodded. "Beef and spices, I'm on it!"

Hinata smiled and turned to look ahead. "Alright, then we can meet back up at the entrance when we're done?"

Tenten gave her another nod, and then they were off. Tenten went ahead and sprinted to the opposite end of the market street, where the meats and grains were sold, leaving Hinata to collect her vegetables for their dinner. Tenten couldn't help but smile at the thought of having her over again: Hinata had taken to having dinner with Tenten almost every night after learning that Tenten's meals at home typically consisted of ice cream and granola bars. The domesticity was something she had never seen herself enjoying, and yet, walking home with Hinata at her side each night gave her just as much joy as when she learned a new technique or landed a particular difficult attack.

When Tenten found herself standing in front of a stall riddled with slabs of pork and chicken, she thought again to the issue of her hair. She felt once again, hyperaware of the pins, and felt how the cold winds bit against the skin of her ears. And more than anything else, she felt herself wondering if Hinata would have a reaction to seeing her hair down; she wondered if Hinata would blush, if she would compliment her, if she would want to touch it the same way Tenten so badly wanted to...

And suddenly Tenten was in the bathroom of a nearby store. Pins were dropping quickly, falling onto the white porcelain of the sink. Strands of brown hair slipped out of place, framing Tenten's face in a mixture of loose and tight curls, the buns having morphed the texture of her hair into something wild and voluminous. For a moment, she panicked, raking her fingers against her hair to try to smooth it down. Eventually, however, she gave up, looking at her reflection in the mirror and picturing a thousand ways in which Hinata could react. Hinata was a nice girl! Tenten knew she was as sweet and gentle as could be! And yet she couldn't help but picture Hinata pointing and laughing cruelly.

Anxious to the point of feeling nauseous, Tenten took a deep breath, pocketed the handful of pins, and went back outside, making haste of her shopping. She carried her bag of rump roast and spices close to her chest, biting at her lip.

 _This isn't like me_ , she thought, growing more and more nervous. _What's happening to me?_

Before she could find an answer to her question, Tenten found herself at the intersection that served as a makeshift entrance to the market. She set her bag down on the sidewalk, where crisp brown and yellow leaves blew around it on the ground. The wind whistled in Tenten's ears, her newly free hair blowing this way and that, occasionally whipping across her face. She felt on edge, pinching and scratching at the sleeves of her jacket.

And before she knew it, Hinata was there. She walked up to Tenten with a light smile and arms laden with bags of vegetables, the picture of serenity. She was silent for a moment, looking at Tenten in a way that made her unbelievably shy.

In a way, she was angry at herself. She'd spent her years in the Academy and as a genin watching her friends and classmates fawn over every boy they laid eyes on. Tenten had felt an admittedly obnoxious sense of superiority, as she never much cared for those boys - even Sasuke, who, though he was a year below her, seemed to be the object of affection of every girl she knew.

And now she was realizing that maybe there was a reason for that. Maybe it wasn't that she was more mature than any other girl or that she was just too busy for crushes. Maybe she just wasn't interested in boys simply because they were, in fact, boys.

The thought terrified her, and she was certain that that fear was plain on her face, given the silence that sat between her and Hinata.

That silence was broken, however, by a soft, "You look lovely."

And suddenly, it clicked in Tenten's mind. Hinata thought she looked lovely with her hair down and suddenly Tenten never wanted to wear buns again, no matter how impractical it was on a mission. Hinata thought Tenten looked lovely and now, nothing else mattered.

Tenten smiled. "Thanks!" she said, and picked up her bag.

The pair walked toward Tenten's apartment in the cool quiet of autumn afterwards, no words passed between them. Hinata would lift her hand every few minutes to tuck a lock of her hair behind her ear, and Tenten mimicked her, unused to the action.

 _She thinks I look lovely_ , she thought, finally understanding why she'd never really cared for the boys.


	3. Winter Mourning

Hinata watched as each day was marked on a calendar next to her bedroom mirror. Thick black marker left massive X's leading up to December, when the trees were empty and dark, their bare branches laden with heavy piles of snow. The entire compound was quiet and somber, no one willing to make too much noise.

It was suffocating her. Hinata felt as though she couldn't breathe with everyone in her family walking on eggshells, especially around her and her father. Even Hanabi, usually so excitable and boisterous, kept her head bowed low around them and speaking softly. It was all so unsettling and, though Hinata was not an angry person, she couldn't help but feel frustrated.

In the years since the Chunin Exams, Neji had grown into a peaceful and gentle person. There was no doubt that he was still stubborn and vain, still a product of childhood misery and trauma, but since Naruto had fought him, Neji had changed. He had bloomed. Hinata noticed how he seemed to grow into himself, and allowing himself to open up to her and their friends.

He was her friend, in those last few years. And now he was gone, and everyone was being so goddamn annoying about it.

She needed to leave. She found herself tucking kunai and senbon into pouches all over her body, buckling her sandals and making her way, hastily, to the training grounds. She jumped from tree branch to tree branch, running across rooftops and back alleys until she was on the opposite side of Konoha's inner walls.

She found herself there alone, which was an incredible relief, wanting nothing more than to throw her knives however and wherever she saw fit. The field was covered in snow, clusters of it falling from atop the targets with every hit she landed. She ran back and forth, throwing and retrieving each blade from the targets until she was sweating and breathless. Instead of stopping, though, she ran towards a taijutsu dummy, transitioning from long- to short-range fighting in a split second. She threw kicks and punches with wild abandon, revelling in how the bundle of hay scratched at her knuckles with every hit. She dodged imaginary blows and retaliated with massive hits to where pressure points would have been should the dummy be an actual person.

"You look like you're having fun," a bright, clear voice rang out from behind her.

Without thinking, Hinata turned, pulling a kunai from a pouch on her thigh and sending it flying towards the voice. As it travelled through the air, Hinata saw that it was Tenten, bundled up in a thick duffle coat and a beanie. Hinata's eyes widened with a split second of fear, but it was quickly reduced as Tenten pulled a similar knife - seemingly from thin air - and blocked it, sending Hinata's weapon hurtling into the snow.

"I'm so sorry!" Hinata said, her voice raised with adrenaline. She watched as Tenten's face moved from confusion a light smile.

"Don't worry about it," she said. "We all get into a zone sometimes. How long have you been out here?"

Hinata took a moment to look around and catch her bearings. When she had set out to the training field, the sun was nearing high noon, obscured by clouds. Now, it was growing darker and darker, the sun already hidden behind the tops of the evergreens to the west. Realizing she'd spent all day there, Hinata slowly became more aware of her body and surroundings. She was sore and starving, her knuckles caked in a thin layer of blood from her attacks against the dummy.

"I'm not sure," she answered quietly, feeling small and anxious.

Tenten, eyebrows furrowed with worry, walked up to Hinata and reached out for her hand. The contact was jarring for Hinata, but welcome: the touch of any human would've been a welcome warmth in the biting cold, but Tenten's touch felt especially, calming, the warmth in her hand radiating throughout her whole body.

"Let's go," Tenten said, leading her gently away from the training ground after picking up the spare kunai from the snow.

The two of them walked in silence, Hinata's head bowed low, watching her feet and occasionally glancing to look at her hand, still intertwined with Tenten's. The pair made their way to Tenten's apartment, where Tenten worked to make two steaming mugs of thick hot chocolate. Hinata sipped hers gingerly, the cocoa burning her lips.

"I'm sorry, again," she said after a while, her fingers tapping against the blue-painted ceramic of the mug.

Tenten watched from across her small round table, trying to read Hinata's stoic behavior.

"It's okay-" she began, but was cut off by Hinata's incessant shaking of her head.

"It's not. I could've hurt you," she insisted.

"But you didn't," Tenten reminded her.

Hinata sighed, taking another sip of her drink.

"You didn't hurt me," Tenten said again, "and you weren't going to." At that, Tenten reached out for Hinata's hand again. Hinata flinched, but took it nonetheless.

"I just…," she started, "I don't know how I'm supposed to feel right now."

Tenten turned her head slightly and furrowed her brow again, squeezing Hinata's hand lightly.

"Everyone back home is acting so weird," Hinata explained. "Even the people who didn't know Neji that well. I understand that we're all mourning, but it just feels like too much. Being there, it's suffocating."

"Then stay here," Tenten offered.

Hinata looked up at her with her pearlescent eyes, grateful. "Thank you," she said. "Although, I don't want to be gone for too long. I just need to clear my head. I was thinking, maybe I would visit him tomorrow…"

"That would be lovely," Tenten said. "Could I come?"

Hinata smiled at that. "I think Neji would love that," she told her.

Tenten smiled. "We'll make a day of it, then! We'll hang out with Neji for a while, watch a movie, make some food, it'll be great!"

The idea, Hinata thought, was spectacular.

"And tonight," Tenten continued, standing up to put her now-empty mug in the sink, "we're gonna have a super stereotypical girl's night. I'm talking manicures and music and gossip. We'll go all out."

Hinata laughed. The thought seemed so absurd, having just spent the day destroying a training ground. "Could we have some food first?"

"Yeah!" Tenten said. "I actually bought some real food yesterday so our dinner won't consist entirely of junk."

Hinata laughed again, the frustration of the day finally leaving her mind. She watched as Tenten pulled various things from her fridge and cupboards and was overcome with a pressing need to be close to her dear friend. Rather than questioning it or allowing herself to feel nervous, she walked up to her and wrapped her arms around her shoulders, burying her face in her shoulder.

"Hinata?" Tenten asked quietly, but wrapped her arms around Hinata's waist without hesitation, glad that Hinata couldn't see the brilliant red that erupted across her cheeks.

They stayed there in Tenten's kitchen for a couple minutes, hugging in silence until Hinata pulled away.

"Thank you," Hinata said quietly, keeping her head low and walking past Tenten towards the living room.

Tenten was amazed and so, so pleased to see that Hinata's cheeks, too, were crimson red.


End file.
